Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance crews acted quickly to take advantage of Wednesday’s dry weather to make permanent repairs on State Route 16.

The left lane of westbound SR 16 near Tremont Street at milepost 27 was closed for three hours as crews made repairs.  Heavy rains Tuesday caused a section of pavement to delaminate and the left lane was closed for about an hour while crews made temporary repairs.

The repairs will be permanent.

When crews pave a state highway, they place several layers of asphalt on the surface until they reach the appropriate depth for traffic. The layers of asphalt are bonded together by a sticky substance called tack, according to WSDOT.

Pavement delamination is caused when the tack weakens and releases the top layer of asphalt, causing a hole to develop. In this case, the tack was weakened by recent heavy rains.